The longtime dive bar has been a restaurant for decades, though it wasn’t always called the Rimrock.

The building that houses the Rimrock at 12320 Lake City Way N.E. was built in 1940, according to the county Department of Assessments.

The county’s report says the building has a wood frame, which seems confusing because of the bricks. A March 1946 photo from the P-I archives shows what it looked like before changes were made in the late 1940s.

Wood’s Radio was in the Rimrock space then and Jim’s Tavern was two doors down at the current site of the Backdoor Pub, past Day’s Laundry business.

A September 1949 photo of the building, below, shows the current Rimrock site was Jim’s Steak House and also home to the Lake City Herald and Lake City Loans. That photo was found at the Puget Sound Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives.

For years in the 1980s and ’90s, the Video Theater Movie Club operated in the space to the right of the Rimrock where the newspaper office and loan office once was.

A September 1956 photo, also from the state archives, shows Jim’s Steak House had a new sign and Jim’s Tavern was still going strong two doors down.

The space has been known as the Rimrock for more than 15 years, and though the longtime dive bar and music venue closed this month, there is talk of a new owner.